Now that the 6th draft is in a decent place, it’s time to reignite the query process for The Ridge Runner. I dusted off the version of the query letter that got the most positive responses, updating it to reflect the changes in the project ( i.e. no more 1st person – book is longer too ). Then I researched which agents best fit the project based on what they are looking for these days.

Couple of things I’ve learned:
1) The literary representation business resembles musical chairs; agents jump from agency to agency. Some agents I queried just a short time ago are at different agencies now, or have disappeared from the radar screen. Which may explain the 43 percent of the queries sent out that still await a response.
2) What agents look for seems to change along with the marketplace and their web sites and on line industry profiles reflect that. A year ago one agent might be after nonfiction, now they may be all about literary fiction and mommy lit. Perhaps in a few more months some will target art history professors in search of the next Da Vinci Code.